Wizz Air CCO Ian Malin discusses how the airline is navigating the summer 2026 season, including the impact of the Middle East conflict, aircraft groundings, fuel price volatility and changing booking trends.
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David Casey (00:10): Hello and welcome to Window Seat, our Aviation Week Transport podcast. I'm David Casey, editor-in-chief at Routes. Welcome aboard. On this week's episode, I'm joined by Ian Malin, the chief commercial officer at Wizz Air, the European ultra-low-cost carrier that's continued to grow its network, expanding key markets, and take delivery of new aircraft despite ongoing challenges in the industry. Wizz Air has been expanding across Europe, particularly markets like Italy, Poland, and Romania, and continues to take delivery of new generation Airbus aircraft while developing new products and commercial initiatives. At the same time, like much of the industry, the airline has had to navigate aircraft groundings, supply chain issues, and geopolitical uncertainty. So it's understandably been a very busy time for the carrier and its leadership team. And a key member of that team is of course Ian, who joined Wizz Air as chief financial officer in 2022 and moved to the role of chief commercial officer last November.
(01:05): So Ian, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to Window Seat.
Ian Malin (01:09): David, thank you very much for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
David Casey (01:11): Well, it's a really interesting time to talk because the summer season has recently got underway. And normally it's fair to say airlines go into this period with a sense of optimism after what is normally a more challenging first quarter, but this year we've obviously got the conflict in the Middle East, higher fuel prices and some disruption to networks. So what's the situation at Wizz Air? How are you feeling going into the summer season and has the situation in the Middle East changed your outlook at all?
Ian Malin (01:38): Well, of course we're concerned and aware of the situation in the Middle East in respect of the global impact as it has on overall consumer sentiment. But when it comes to this summer season, we're really excited and really optimistic about what's in store for European travel. We were heavily exposed to the Middle East last year. In fact, we had an airline based down there. We had a joint venture airline in Abu Dhabi, which we exited in September for a number of reasons, one of which was just because the geopolitical climate was volatile for the last few years. I don't have to remind you as to what's been going on across the region over the last two, three years. And we wanted to make sure that we focus our business on where we can be Europe's reliable, low-cost airline. So you mentioned in your introduction that we're one of Europe's low-cost airlines.
(02:27): That's true. And our ambition, my ambition is to be known as Europe's reliable low-cost airline. That means being reliable when it comes to being able to operate, being reliable when it comes to being able to offer the lowest fares, being reliable when it comes to how we interact with our vendors, because that will ultimately allow us to lower our costs and pass those cost savings to our customers in the form of fares. And so one of those decisions was to focus back on Europe. And in particular, what we consider our core markets, which is Central and Eastern Europe, everything from the Baltics down into the Balkans, then into the Italian region, and then over to the Caucasus, and then creating what we're now referring to as our own version of the Sunbelt, which is this east-west flow between Spain, Italy, the Caucasus, and then up and down Central and Eastern Europe.
(03:14): And so as the consumer rethinks their holiday plans this summer and their overall travel patterns, we see those markets as critical for providing people options. Certainly everyone can go to Western Europe and we offer options for people to fly to and from Western Europe, from Central Eastern Europe, as well as from the UK, but we're seeing an increasing number of people looking for new destinations and new alternatives, especially since I think as excited as we are about Spain, it's going to be a very crowded place this summer. And so what we offer are opportunities for people to explore off the beaten path. Certainly these markets are less discovered. They're becoming more approachable, more accessible. And our mission is to make sure that we can connect people to these locations reliably, safely, with the newest aircraft and that's a very important part because the aircraft are comfortable and our crew are fabulous.
(04:07): And so we're trying to make sure that we can provide an experience to people that's different than what they've previously been able to have in more established markets.
David Casey (04:17): So it's really about diversifying that network, finding some of those destinations that are a little bit more off the beaten path and just offering something different to the consumer.
Ian Malin (04:27): Just to comment on that, I wouldn't even say necessarily that we're trying to diversify. These are markets where we've been operating for 22 years. These are markets that have been our bread and butter. And I think that what we're trying to do is actually just become more dense, more frequent so that we become less of a sort of weekend option and more of the go-to choice for the daily traveler. So these daily travelers, our profile have changed. We used to see a lot of migration of labor from east to west, and now we're seeing a bigger leisure segment. Certainly there's a lot more business travelers exploring opportunities in Central Eastern Europe, and these are all the types of people that we're catering to and it's changing our dynamic. And so as our profile of customer changes, so does the profile of the airline.
(05:08): And we're very excited about the opportunities because we have a lot of growth coming, as you pointed out, and we need to deploy that growth. And part of our strategy for this year is our grow better strategy, which is rather than growing into exotic locations, which we've done and we continue to analyze, since certainly we have to not turn down those opportunities, but in the meantime, we need to grow our existing footprint and make sure that we are building that resilience into our network so that we can be that reliable airline that I mentioned.
David Casey (05:35): And in terms of the booking patterns that you're seeing at the minute then, you mentioned right at the start of the podcast that you're entering the summer, feeling very optimistic about things at the minute, despite everything that's going on, despite Ukraine, despite the Middle East, are you seeing any change in demand patterns though? We have heard some airline CEOs, some of your rivals say that destinations like Turkey and Cyprus are a little bit weaker at the minute and people are more inclined to book a holiday, a vacation to Western Mediterranean markets like Spain and Portugal, for example. Are you seeing any evidence of that at the minute and are you relocating any capacity as a result?
Ian Malin (06:13): Yeah, no, we are. And it would be strange for us not to be seeing the same sorts of patterns. And so places like you said, like Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt are seeing a slowdown, but our exposure to those markets is limited. And we only have a base in Cyprus, a four aircraft base there. That's out of 261 aircraft in the total fleet currently. So very small exposure there. And we are managing that capacity by changing some of our patterns. But I think that that's a temporary issue. And certainly I don't see that when the situation resolves itself with Iran, that Cyprus should have any hangover. And I still think Egypt is a very exciting market. It's affordable, and that goes with our business model, which is to bring affordable travel to affordable locations. So as I mentioned, Spain's going to be very busy. Italy's going to be very busy this summer.
(07:04): It's always busy. And so while we're adding capacity, a lot of our Middle Eastern capacity where we were exposed, because we were flying in February to Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Tel Aviv and Jordan, places like that. So we've had to bring that capacity back to Europe, and we've basically layered it in on top of what we're currently doing, but we've also added more Spanish flows, more Italian to Eastern Europe flows, things like that. So we're certainly providing those options to Western Europe, but we're at the same time also very excited about the markets that I mentioned, Central and Eastern Europe. And so for example, we added more Black Sea beach destinations. So there's historical flows between Eastern Europe and the Black Sea. And so we've added more capacity there. We've also added more flights to Croatia, again, a cheaper alternative to the French Riviera or the Italian Riviera.
(07:53): We've added more flights to Albania. And so one of the things is that it's all good to have a cheap ticket to get somewhere, but if the destination is expensive, and I think we're all seeing the inflation hit people when it comes to hotels being more expensive, going out being more expensive, tickets for events, being more expensive, things like that. So what we're trying to do, what I'm trying to do is make sure that we offer the options for people who want Western Europe in the right destinations, but also offer options for people who are looking to be more overall cost conscious with their travel budget so that the value of the flight doesn't get wiped out by the cost of the trip. So being able to have both the flight and the trip be something affordable, especially when you see the prices coming through the petrol pumps and things like that, that's where we can come in and still provide exciting, life-changing experiences for people because travel isn't just about the time you spend on the Wizz Air flight, although we'd like people to think that way.
(08:46): It's about the whole satisfaction of that desire for humans to explore. And so that's really the excitement. So we're offering new destinations with safe travel options, which maybe weren't the case in the past with smaller airlines with older planes. And like I said, being able to make sure that when people fly with Wizz Air, they know that the reaction's going to be, "Oh, I know these guys and I trust these
David Casey (09:08): guys." Having that brand awareness and having that visibility. And in terms of the fuel price that you just mentioned, obviously you want to keep your prices low. You want to ensure that people can travel, can afford to travel and want to go on those vacations this summer. I know Wizz Air has a hedging strategy for the next few years. How exposed are you though to the recent rise in oil prices and do you think that we're likely to see much higher fares across Europe this summer as a result of some of those higher fuel prices?
Ian Malin (09:34): I certainly think you're going to see higher fares for airlines that are unhedged and for airlines that are flying older planes. We're doing what we can to keep our fares low across the board. We are in a good position. We're one of the best hedged airlines out there. Others are more hedged, others are less hedged. We're very comfortable with our hedging position because we're exactly where we want it to be in terms of our policy. So there's been no exposure from our perspective because we're in line with what our overall strategy dictates. And so the majority of our fuel for the summer, which gets us to the end of September, the majority of our fuel is hedged. And actually, if you look at the shape of the hedging curve without getting into too much technicalities, once you get past six months, the fuel price differential comes down.
(10:21): So right now the spot price is very high, but then there's an expectation based on the markets that the situation's going to resolve itself and fuel's going to come down. And so you are able to lock in better prices further out. Now, the prices aren't anywhere close to what they were pre the Iran attacks, but they're coming down dramatically from where they are on the spot market. And so we're in the process now of looking at locking in our further ... So like the winter, the fuel pricing, and those prices that we lock in aren't dramatically higher than the protection that we currently have on the short-term fuel consumption for the summer. It's higher, but it's not double the price like what it would be right now if we were looking at the spot market. And so overall, from a risk management perspective, this is precisely why we put these hedges in place back in April of 2023 when we started hedging again, was to be able to make sure that we are protected when you have these shocks and these shocks come, as we all know in this world now, having been around for the last 20 years and seen all the different challenges that the world has faced.
(11:26): And on top of that, it's our fuel efficiency. So we have not just fuel efficient aircraft where we consume less fuel per trip based upon the engines we have, but we have 239 seats on our planes. But even when you're on the plane, it doesn't feel crowded, it doesn't feel cramped. And so 239 seats is really important because we're able to bring more people on every trip while consuming less fuel. And so the combination of the hedge protection plus the fuel efficiency means that we will be best positioned, I think, just mathematically the case, best positioned out there than anyone else flying. And then when we continue to lock in the lower fuel in the forward periods in the winter season, then we'll be able to continue to deliver on that relative lower cost. But I think that there's going to be some element of, if this fuel price continues, there's going to be some element of cost that does have to come through, but I'm confident we can deliver the least amount relative to everybody else.
(12:25): And again, remember, our fares are extremely competitive. So even a few percentage points on a low base is a lot cheaper for passengers than a few percentage points on a legacy airline's ticket base, which is many hundreds of euros or pounds, however you want to look at
David Casey (12:40): it. In terms of some of the markets then that you're expanding in this summer, you mentioned Italy has been a focus. Now I know you'll be joining us for Routes Europe, which is taking place in Rimini in May. And I think this summer, I was looking at some of the stats. I think you're growing about 41%. You might be able to correct me on that in Italy this summer in terms of the seat capacity that you're adding. I think it's something like 10 million departures seats you'll offer from Italy this summer. What is driving that expansion in that market and why has it become such a strategically important for Wizz Air right now? Obviously you've had such a strong presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Obviously that's still your heartland, but it seems that Italy seems to be the main focus. Why is that?
Ian Malin (13:22): Well, you're right. Our heartland has and will always be Central Europe. It doesn't mean it needs to be constrained to Central and Eastern Europe. We are the number one airline in Romania. We are the number one airline now in Bulgaria. We are the number one airline in the Balkans in Hungary. We are the number one airline in Warsaw. So we will be the number one airline in Ukraine when that opens up, and I'm sure you'll ask about that at some point. Italy, we've been ... Well, we are the number three airline today. However, with the opening of our Palermo base and with the advent of the newest aircraft additions that we just announced in the last few weeks in Venice, Milan and Rome, we will be the number two airline in Italy from a seat capacity perspective. So that's really important because that's pushing us up in terms of market share, in terms of relevance, in terms of brand awareness.
(14:12): We have a partnership now with the AS Roma football team where we're the sleeve sponsor, which is getting great buzz. And it's really, really fun for everyone for the capital city, as well as for all of our passengers. But I think what's really important for us for Italy is that we do have the ability ... OK, I think we're still a ways off to be the number one airline, but we still have the ability to be the de facto national airline. Now, I know there is one there. It's ITA, and I know that our competitors are very active, but if you look at ITA, I read even yesterday that there's even talks of subsuming the ITA brand into the Lufthansa sort of into Lufthansa brand. So the argument there is that is ITA really the Italian national carrier anymore under those terms? And maybe Wizz Air can become the de facto national carrier.
(15:02): I know that's a big stretch, but I think we could be the de facto national low-cost carrier in Italy, just like we are the de facto national carrier in those markets that I listed just a minute ago. And so again, from our perspective, we have to do what we have to do in order to keep our costs down. And sometimes that comes with a little bit of inconvenience when it comes to queuing at the airports and things like that. But we are a better product on the plane. We are a nicer airline and we're trying to provide better options. And so in order to provide better options, we need to be present in these markets, otherwise we're just going to be a fringe player and less relevant. And so that's why you're seeing a lot of our growth happening in Italy. Again, not exclusively. We also added other bases.
(15:47): I was in Yerevan in Armenia last week, we opened up a base in Podgorica, which is Montenegro just on Monday. So we're growing both in Italy and elsewhere, but in Italy, we have to grow. Part of my grow better strategy is we have to grow across the markets and also within the market. And so we're adding a lot more domestic as well because we see people looking for alternatives from Ryanair, from ITA, from easyJet, and we are becoming quickly that alternative, especially with our investments into Rome and into the other bases to be able to have partnership more than just at the airport, but also with the city, hence the AS Roma connection so that we extend that partnership away from the airport and really becoming more of a recognized brand and an Italian brand in the market.
David Casey (16:31): So it's about working with all stakeholders. It's not just working with the airport, it's working with tourism bodies and making sure you have that brand visibility. You mentioned earlier a little bit about Ukraine. Now we've obviously talked about the Middle East, but obviously Ukraine was historically a really important market for Wizz Air. Recently, the government established a high-level working group to prepare for reopening of airports once safety conditions allow. And there seems to be increase in discussion about how civil aviation could gradually return to parts of the country when it's safe to do so, particularly like the Western part. From a Wizz Air perspective, how are you thinking about Ukraine at the minute? How much planning is going on behind the scenes for a potential reopening, and when do you think that might come?
Ian Malin (17:12): Well, we've been prepared to reopen since the beginning of last year, of 2025. In fact, I was there in March. I went there to keep four direct meetings and also to inspect the facilities. And I would say that the airports have been ready for a very long time, even ready back then. Of course, there's a lot of other things that need to happen with regards to airspace and certifications and things like that. But our plan has been weekly refreshed, refreshed weekly for the last year and continues to be so. So we're ready to go, and within six weeks, we know exactly what we're doing in order to get flying. Now, six weeks from when is the question, we're not going to go in under a half-baked partial reopening type situation. So I know what you're referring to when it comes to the west, having the western part of Ukraine potentially being more accelerated, we want a comprehensive solution with respect to the airspace and to the market so that we can do things reliably without stops and starts, without disruptions.
(18:13): And so that's the position we're taking, but we're ready. And in fact, we never left. We still have aircraft on the ground that were unfortunately there when the airspace closed and we were able to get one out early on from Lviv, but the three in Ukraine and Kiev are still there. And so those are aircraft that we will reactivate as well, being able to help deliver our growth.
David Casey (18:35): OK. So within six weeks you could restart, but it wouldn't be something that you would look at just going into one or two airports initially. It'd have to be a full-scale reopening.
Ian Malin (18:44): Yeah. I mean, but even the six week hurdle is not a full-scale delivery of our plan. It would start with inbound flying because where we are in terms of our markets, we have very good coverage around Ukraine in terms of the access points, and then we would scale it up from there. But we're very excited about Ukraine and continue to be committed to bringing low-cost travel to Ukraine.
David Casey (19:06): Another market that you've been constrained in at the minute that I know you want to grow in, but you can't because of geopolitics is in Israel. I know you've extended the suspension of service to Israel at the minute. I think it's out till late April now. That's right. You have had discussions though about potentially opening a base in the country. Has though the current situation with Iran changed your thinking about that, or is it still in your longer-term plans?
Ian Malin (19:28): Well, it's certainly not in our plans under the current circumstances. We need to see what the future looks like. It's pretty speculative at this point, but we are maintaining our schedules to Tel Aviv. Like you said, canceled through the end of April basically, but we're still selling tickets and we'll continue to sell tickets. Tel Aviv for us is an important market. We have many people going to and from our regions and our markets. We were the second largest airline and the largest international airline operating to and from Tel Aviv, and we've made commitments and people have made commitments to us about our operations. So with respect to the base, we have the approval, we have permission to open a base, but that's where that ends at this point. We still haven't worked out the slot situation in the airports. And so there's still a few more steps that need to happen before we can realistically comment on whether a base is achievable and deliverable.
(20:22): We have one permission in a long set of permissions that need to happen, and obviously that's all on hold right now until we assess the situation. But we've been very engaged with the Israelis. And when the airspace closed this most recent time, the Israelis contacted us and asked us to add additional capacity to Egypt to make sure that we could repatriate Israelis who were stranded in Europe and we accommodated. And so we added a whole bunch of stuff to Sharm el-Sheikh so that people could fly there and then continue on to Israel over the road. And that was in collaboration with the government. And so we remain a partner and we want to be a partner and we want to continue delivering travel to Israel provided the situation is safe. And so safety is the ultimate determiner there in terms of what we do.
David Casey (21:07): So it's still on the agenda then, but it's just when those safety conditions allow you to look at that market again. In terms of your fleet, let's just talk about that for a minute because I know you've had a significant number of aircraft grounded because of engine inspection and the repair program related to Pratt & Whitney issues. Could you give us an update on what the situation is in terms of groundings and how much of that is constraining your network or forcing you to change your network plans at the moment?
Ian Malin (21:35): Yeah. So just to remind the audience what happened. So you had a supply chain that was designed for a new technology engine called the Geared Turbofan, the GTF, and that supply chain meant that you had a certain amount of repair shops that could process the engines as and when they needed to repair. This new technology, like any new technology, came with some teething pains, and those teething pains need to be worked out in terms of making sure that the durability of certain parts and how they performed in certain conditions, particularly in hot and harsh environments was known. And so all within safety tolerances and those sorts of measures. And so you had an engine ecosystem design, and then they identified that in the manufacturing process, there were potential irregularities that had to be addressed. And so rather than taking any risks, they grounded the entire ... I'm being simplistic, but they basically said, after this many cycles, you have to take this engine in for preemptive repair, replace the parts.
(22:32): And so it was a manufacturing issue and not a design issue. And so we complied with that and that was when we had to take like 55 aircraft down, which we did. So you have an optimized supply chain design for fixing engines in the ordinary course of business. And then you take the global fleet and you push it through. And so basically you have this big funnel of engines waiting to get into a constrained supply chain because as you know, post-COVID, the supply chain has been stretched and searching for engineers and training engineers, whether it's in aircraft maintenance or any other industry has been challenging. And so you ended up not necessarily with challenges in terms of repairing the engines, but just simply challenges in terms of throughput. And so our engines and everybody else's engines for our airlines that operate this variant were basically being pushed into a very thin funnel.
(23:20): And that's what caused this grounding to continue and to drag on because it's now been a couple years, I think it's been, we're now in our third year of this. Where we are now is that depending on what happens because we have no spare engines lying around, they're all being used to fly the aircraft that are flying, is that when you have a normal issue when it comes to say a bird strike or somebody causes damage on the ground to an engine at an airport, then that aircraft effectively becomes grounded because there's no spare engines lying around. And so the number changes day to day, but we're in a much better spot now. And I would say that the worst is certainly well behind us. So we're roughly between 30 and 35 engines, aircraft are grounded as we speak, and that's relative to a much bigger fleet.
(24:03): Like I said, 261 aircraft in the total fleet. When this started, we were looking at like 50 aircraft at 160, 170 aircraft fleet. So the percentage of grounded to total fleet was much higher back then. And so the impact to us is lower. Nevertheless, it's still a challenge. However, it's not that much of an issue as we speak today because we did have to cancel some of that capacity from the Middle East due to the Iran attacks, which we haven't put back on into flying. They won't go on until May. So the grounded aircraft is less of an issue because we have surplus aircraft as we speak due to the cancellation. So that's not affecting our core operation. In fact, our core operation is even more resilient than ever because of the spare aircraft that we have effectively, but that will then ramp up in terms of what happens with the summer flying, because obviously in summer we try and fly as much as possible, but we are in the process of buying more engines.
(24:56): We've bought a number of engines as we continue to do so, but we bought a bunch in this past quarter that just closed at the end of March in anticipation of the summer operation. And we are in active, I would say, if not daily, weekly conversations with Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer, around making sure that we do have access to the shops and that our engines are able to be processed as quickly as possible. And we've set a target that together with Pratt, and of course it's not something that we're committing to, but it's something that we're working with Pratt on to have all of our aircraft unparked by the end of 2027.
And that's an important period because by the end of 2027, 2028, Wizz Air will be a much dramatically, more dramatically more efficient airline than ever before because while we're unparking aircraft, we're also redelivering some of the legacy aircraft, the A320 CEO family aircraft, which under current fuel are very expensive to operate because of the fuel efficiency and because they're older, they're also more expensive to operate because of higher maintenance costs and more frequent maintenance requirements.
(26:02): They're not old relative to the industry, but they're old relative to our fleet. And so by 2028, you'll start to see an airline that is almost 100% A320 neo family aircraft, highest fuel efficiency, highest seat density, common so that we have less complexity in our fleet, and that's going to be extremely powerful. No other airline is going to be able to have that kind of fleet profile in Europe, and that's where we get really excited about the prospects. So like I said, we're transitioning through that. We have to get through this crisis, but I think we have the fuel efficiency and the hedging to help us through that. And we have the markets and we have the strategy to get us through there. And then as things unwind and because this can't continue to be this way for that long, then you're going to start to see the efficiency benefits in a more benign operating environment.
(26:52): And that's where we all get very excited.
David Casey (26:55): Before we wrap up, I just want to talk a little bit more about that fleet strategy. You mentioned about the NEOs that are coming into the fleet. Obviously we saw last year you revised your XLR order. I think it was from 47 down to 11. Could you just talk us through the strategic thinking behind that decision? And tied to that, I just wanted to touch on the situation in the Gulf. I think originally when you ordered those XLRs, you saw them as potentially opening new markets in Asia and India from Eastern Europe. Given the number of one-stop options at the minute is more limited, has that come back into your thinking at all or are you still thinking that the XLR will just be used within the network as the A321 NEOs will be as well?
Ian Malin (27:39): So you're right, the XLR was tied to some extent with our ambitions or to our ambitions to fly out of Abu Dhabi and to open up new markets further east. When we decided to pull out of Abu Dhabi, then that then changed the profile and the overall demand of the XLR because basing an XLR in Europe and flying an XLR for the XLR mission, which is say seven, eight hours, means that you are by default going into markets that are riskier than what we see European markets to be. So you are either flying to the US, which you're limited in terms of our density. So there's only so many markets you can fly and that's a very competitive market and one that we don't necessarily need to expose ourselves to. Then you're looking at flying from Europe to back to the Middle East, which we want to constrain for the same reasons why we were constrained and protected when this Iran attack opened up.
(28:34): You are looking at places like India, Pakistan, those places come with their own complexities or you're looking at North Africa, which we can do with the NEO, so we don't need the XLR, and then you're looking at Sub-Saharan Africa or West Africa, and that also comes with a set of complexities. And so our XLR approach is pretty straightforward. We will fly it when we think we can make more money than what we would be otherwise doing in Europe, and that's what's happening, for example, with our UK to Saudi flights that we currently have on an XLR, which are performing very well. But otherwise, if we don't see a XLR related mission opportunity, we're not going to force ourselves to fly it as an XLR. We're going to fly it as a NEO within our network and we'll see what opportunities present themselves as the world progresses.
(29:18): And so bringing that fleet order from 47 aircraft down to 11 was further evidence of our de-risking and our strategic focus on Central Eastern Europe, Italy, Caucasus, places like that. And just to point out, even before the fuel spike, the XLR was not as fuel efficient and not as cost efficient as a NEO, but more efficient than a CEO aircraft. And so that gap only widens as fuel increases. And so it's still a very reliable and very capable aircraft for us. And there are certain markets where we fly, where depending on the time of year, you do face headwinds. And there are situations where you may have to tech stop to get more fuel, for example, and that's where the XLR can be a sort of long range or more bigger fuel tank NEO basically at the end of the day. So I think this is all evidence of Wizz Air's ambition to really focus on our core markets, deliver an exceptional product in those core markets and do that well, and then focus on what we can do after that.
(30:25): And we still see a lot of opportunity and a lot of improvement. And we're really excited for that because it's happening as we speak and there's more to come. So once we sort of establish ourselves as the reliable European low-cost carrier, then we can start to think about what else we do, but we have plenty of work to do in our core markets and that's what the message should be. We want people to buy Europe, we want people to fly Wizz Air, and anything else at that point needs to be exceptional. Otherwise, we'll just focus on our core strategy.
David Casey (30:54): OK. Well, we're all out of time for this week's episode, but it seems to be a great message to end on about the optimism that Wizz Air is facing despite some of the challenges that we've discussed. So thank you so much, Ian, for joining us on this episode. And as I said, during the episode, Ian will be with us at Routes Europe, which takes place from May 18th to May 20th in Rimini, Italy. So if you're attending the event, it'll be a great opportunity to hear more about Wizz Air's network strategy and expansion plans. And you can always look out for full coverage from the event on aviationweek.com and routesonline.com. So that's all for this week's episode. But before we go, thank you to our producer, Cory Hitt, and of course, thank you to you, our listeners. Make sure you don't miss us by subscribing to Window Seat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
(31:38): So until next time, this is David Casey disembarking from Window Seat.
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